GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



i. 



YESTERDAY, as I came from my dip in the sea, I had 

 to scramble barefooted over a ledge of rock to the 

 safe haven wherein I had deposited the suits and 

 trappings of the outer man. The surface of the 

 rock, which appeared so smooth viewed from a dis- 

 tance, was, in reality, a veritable place of torture, 

 for it was studded with small sharp shells, contact 

 with which rendered my scramble somewhat of a 

 penitential pilgrimage in its nature. The candid 

 friend who heard my plaint was immediately pre- 

 pared with a hundred questions regarding not only 

 the nature of these shells, which encrust the rocks 

 everywhere, but concerning the " use " or useless- 

 ness of such minute and feeble folk in the world at 

 all. There is much difficulty experienced at times in 

 replying to commonplace questions. What the shells 

 are, is a matter easily enough disposed of; what use 

 they may subserve in the world at large, is a point 

 not so easily determined. 



After all, is this question of "use" really one 

 which need concern us greatly in our studies of life ? 



